The plane carrying Roman Protasevich was flying from Greece to Lithuania before being intercepted and forced to divert to Belarus.The flight from Athens International Airport, Greece, to Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, was intercepted by a Belarusian fighter jet on the pretence of a bomb threat on the orders of President Alexander Lukashenko, and escorted to Minsk. Once the aircraft was on the ground, one of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich, was arrested.
According to the airline, its pilots were notified by Belarusian authorities of “a potential security threat on board” and told to land the plane in Minsk. The flight was carrying 171 passengers. In Minsk, Belarusian opposition activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of several crimes by the Belarusian government, was removed from the plane and arrested.His girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, was also removed from the aircraft by Belarusian authorities.Despite the fact that the plane was closer to Vilnius, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, according to his press service, personally ordered the flight to be redirected to Minsk and sent a Belarusian Air ForceMiG-29 fighter aircraft to escort it .Belarusian government news agency BelTA said that the pilots asked to land in Minsk. Both Ryanair and Belarusian law enforcement said that no bombs were found onboard.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Belarus yesterday was a “state-sponsored coercive act” and was “absolutely unacceptable”.he said the European Council must respond “very strongly”.
The Taoiseach said “we all know what happened here”. “Don’t be hiding behind excuses”, he said.”You forced the plane down to arrest a journalist whose views you don’t agree with. You arrested that individual and that is contrary to any sense of human decency or democratic values.”
Mr Martin added: “It’s piracy in the skies and it’s just not acceptable. There are international rules there and they have to apply.”